Undeterred by the counter cease and desist sent by the creators of Coinye to Kanye West, the venerable rapper has filed suit against the parody cryptocurrency. Since its debut earlier this month, Coinye seems to only have gained steam since West's attorneys filed their initial cease and desist. The lawsuit comes the same day that representatives of Chuck Norris shut down Norris Coin, another altcoin.

In the 124-page lawsuit, West’s attorneys accuse 0daycoins.com, coinye-exchange.com, newchg.com, “Jane Does 1 through 50,” “John Does 1 through 50,” “Fnu Lnu a/k/a Jonny Bravo,” Dogecoin, and Amazon of “willful trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and rights of publicity violations among a score of other blatant statutory and common law violations.”

The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, alleges further:

Although Defendants could have chosen any name for their cryptocurrency, they deliberately chose to trade upon the goodwill associated with Mr. West by adopting names that are admitted plays on his name. Mr. West has been inextricably tied to Defendants' cryptocurrency, as practically every online article and blog post about the COINYE WEST currency mentions Mr. West and/or displays a photograph of Mr. West.

Amazon is cited, as it is a host for the coinyeco.in and coinyewest.com sites, and the company did not immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment.

1.5 bitcoins will get you the keys to the Coinye kingdom

What has become of the Coinye leadership? It remains anonymous for now. And, unless the domain names or hosts give up the real names of their customers so they can be properly added to the lawsuit and served, the suit won’t go very far.

“We don’t care about it,” one of the apparent new organizers, “weezy,” told Ars via an IRC chat. “We are trying to avoid any lawsuit. And we are not US-based. So they’d have to go through inter land laws.”

Despite the fact that the coinyeco.in website says “COINYE IS DEAD. You win, Kanye,” weezy told Ars that “we’re making a new [site]” for Coinye. When asked to elaborate, he described it as a “small team from the community” based “somewhere in Europe.”

Another user, Doge_Funnie, claims to own the coinyecoin.com and the Coinye Twitter account, among other digital assets. He told Ars over IRC that he would sell the entire lot for 1.5 bitcoins, which at current exchange rates is around $1,200. He also said he might put it up for auction.

Doge_Funnie claimed that the original owner—whom Ars previously corresponded with—had completely abandoned the project in the wake of the lawsuit.

Despite the chatter, Coinyecoin doesn’t appear to be finished just yet—members of the community are still trying to buy and sell, with a lone few trying to rebuild it. As of this writing, one user named Gotoitguy wrote, “I’m still looking to cash out 115k coye @.1btc.”

Promoted Comments

I wonder what effect, if any, this is having to crypto-currency as a group entity. With the fall of coinye (and other parody coins) due to their absurdity and seeming shock that the person they are parodying would try to stop them, does this mean that the currency as a whole could start becoming part of a much larger joke to serious investors and/or retailers? I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

Upon information and belief, Defendant Dogecoin ("Dogecoin") is the operator, registrant and/or host of the following websites: <minecoinye.com>,<coinyemining.com>,<coinyegames.com>,<coinyewallet.com>,<coinyestore.com>,<buycoinyes.com>,<buycoinye.net>,<buy-coinye.com>,<betcoinye.com>,<coinyespin.com>,<coinyeroulette.com>,<coinyegambling.com>,<coinyepoker.com>,<coinye-dice.com>,<coinyedice.com>,<getcoinye.com>,<coinyeshop.com>,<freecoinye.com>, and <fuckcoinye.com>. Dogecoin is engaged in commerce in the United States including within this judicial district. There is no contact information provided on the above-referenced websites. Dogecoin shields its contact information by using a privacy service provided by the registrar. The only contact information provided from the Whois report is: dogecoincom@obscure.me. Plaintiffs believe that information obtained in discovery will lead to the identification of contact information for Dogecoin.

After the Coinye story broke, an enterprising Reddit Dogecoin joker registered those domain names and then put up a Dogecoin logo on the site making it look like the site was hacked, but it in fact wasn't. It seems the lawsuit basically wants that register to surrender the domains.

I wonder what effect, if any, this is having to crypto-currency as a group entity. With the fall of coinye (and other parody coins) due to their absurdity and seeming shock that the person they are parodying would try to stop them, does this mean that the currency as a whole could start becoming part of a much larger joke to serious investors and/or retailers? I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

I wonder what effect, if any, this is having to crypto-currency as a group entity. With the fall of coinye (and other parody coins) due to their absurdity and seeming shock that the person they are parodying would try to stop them, does this mean that the currency as a whole could start becoming part of a much larger joke to serious investors and/or retailers? I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

I don't think it really affects any of the major crypto currencies like btc and ltc, but I sure hope it puts a brake on the apparition of other joke/meme based coins like memecoin and dogecoin.

It would be, but billions of dollars are in it. That makes it anything but.

While I'm not saying the bitcoin market is worthless... just that the "value" of something is not always what it supposedly is on paper (so to speak, since this is all digital) at any given moment. The dotcom bubble should have taught you that.

The Learning Company, bought by Mattel in 1999 for $3.5 billion, sold for $27.3 million in 2000Geocities ($3.57 billion), bought by Yahoo (using it's own inflated stock value)... closed downinktomi ($25 billion), bought by Yahoo for $235 million

I wonder what effect, if any, this is having to crypto-currency as a group entity. With the fall of coinye (and other parody coins) due to their absurdity and seeming shock that the person they are parodying would try to stop them, does this mean that the currency as a whole could start becoming part of a much larger joke to serious investors and/or retailers? I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

I don't think monopoly money ever cheapened real physical currencies, as that's what these guys have bassdically been making.

Who has more brand recognition amongst the economy's movers and shakers, Grumpy Cat or Donald Trump?

It's exactly the joke value that's scaring off the older investors who're sitting on the vast majority of Bitcoins in the hopes that it'll become the next global currency that lends Dogecoin its value. I would wager (Actually I would if I were certain it were legal) that the majority of Bitcoins being held in inactive accounts are held by the 30+ crowd that sees Dogecoin as a joke entirely, whereas the majority of Dogecoin are likely held by the <30 crowd.

Anyway, I'm certain that the people knocking the economic power of a joke will never have the last laugh.

I wonder what effect, if any, this is having to crypto-currency as a group entity. With the fall of coinye (and other parody coins) due to their absurdity and seeming shock that the person they are parodying would try to stop them, does this mean that the currency as a whole could start becoming part of a much larger joke to serious investors and/or retailers? I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

Meanwhile, bitcoin keeps trundling on and gaining steam. We can now buy plane tickets with bitcoin via cheapair.com and shop at overstock.com. I paid in bitcoin at overstock this weekend and it was easier than PayPal. Of course, you have to already have bitcoin, but it wasn't that long ago that you also had to fund your paypal account.

I think the bigger joke here is the lawsuit against Coinye. Don't get me wrong, Kanye has a legal requirement to protect his trademark but filing a dozen claims against - literally - everyone involved in the process? What a joke!

Part of the... many... claims here is that contributory agents (Amazon and Newchg, for example) are liable because they have not yet responded to various letters from Kanye's legal team. The complaints were sent out a week - at most - before the lawsuit was filed. While most things on the internet happen very quickly, the court will recognize that in the real world, a week is not that long. Kanye's lawyers also claim the Does should have known better than to mine the currency because various news publications published articles about pending legal action *the day the coin ending up launching.* Again, this is something the court will recognize as ridiculous.

It is quite clear that all of this is entirely attributable to simple misunderstanding. Quoting West's attorneys: "Although Defendants could have chosen any name for their cryptocurrency, they deliberately chose to trade upon the goodwill associated with Mr. West by adopting names that are admitted plays on his name.

Mistake # 1 - West's attorneys clearly have him confused with another client, as is evident from the suggestion that West is in some way associated with "goodwill"!?

Mr. West has been inextricably tied to Defendants' cryptocurrency, as practically every online article and blog post about the COINYE WEST currency mentions Mr. West and/or displays a photograph of Mr. West.

Mistake # 2 - West's attorneys reveal an even more profoundly amateurish mistake when their public statements confirm them to be perhaps the only persons gullible enough to believe any of this is more than simple farce.

Kanye is right to sue - if anyone is going to get rich off his name it should be him. Probably a bit too late to release his own coin now though.

In defence of Dogecoin, I would point out that lolcats/Cheezburger still has a healthy revenue several years after lolcat first appeared. The last figures I saw were about $4 million annual revenue with investments in the company of over $30 million. Although jokes and memes are difficult to compare I think there is still a lot of revenue potential in Doge and in the coin that provides a central focus for the community. Advertising companies could see a lot of positive feedback from targeted ads aimed at this community paid for in Dogecoin.

The advent of new replacements for bitcoin illustrates that. The bulk coin processors are looking for a new currency to process so they can get better return rates. Once a clear successor emerges the bulk processors will abandon bitcoin leaving it functionally dead for lack of transaction processing capacity.

Overstock.com doesn't price it's goods in bitcoins. It doesn't use bitcoins internally. It converts bitcoins into dollars at POS

And? That's pretty much the perfect use-case for bitcoin if you're not trying to 'invest' in it. It's a money transfer mechanism, an alternative to Visa/Mastercard/Amex or BACS/FPS/SEPA/etc or Western Union or sending cash through snail mail.

I propose a form for commenters on all future Coinye articles (and let's be honest, there will be future Coinye articles):

□ Overly defensive screed about the legitimacy and longevity of Bitcoin□ Smug assertion that this is a joke, as though someone, somewhere, at some time might have somehow mistaken it for a serious□ Reference to popcorn

We can just have a running tally at the top, leaving the actual comment space free for useful commentary and discussion.

Is this even news? I feel like Ars needs an Entertainment tab for fluff pieces like this. I know it's supposed to be under the realm of tech due to it being based on bitcoin and the like, but it seems like there's no substance to articles on these parody coins.

It would be one thing if there was some kind of actual palpable repercussion to this that would be worth noting, but honestly this story barely deserves a 10 word blurb in a news ticker.

[...] I mean it seems like I could create an arscoin or a fbcoin and laugh it up while waiting for the c&d letters to come rolling in, so doesn't that weaken and cheapen the idea of a crypto-currency as a whole? The idea for the currency remains the same but the coins that started it (bitcoin, dogecoin, what ever else there is now) are now linked to this running joke which only seems to hurt the brand rather than progress it.

You're precisely correct; you could create a coin based on anything of your choosing (violating copyrights/likeness or not) because the underlying code is open source. That doesn't mean it would devalue the original coins (Bitcoin, for SHA256 -- Litecoin, for Scrypt).

Think of Bitcoin sort of like "Coca Cola" in this case. It's well established, proven, and widely accepted (at least as being the first cryptocurrency). You can create a new coin, certainly...but it would be like creating your own version of off-brand cola at home. You and a small group of people may enjoy it for a few weeks/months, but it'll never overtake or devalue (to any noticeable degree) the original Cola.

I think a digital currency is the closest step so far we have to a more unified but decentralized currency system, and I do see a place for it in the world. With the recent and plainly obvious goings on with the setting of global inflation, and the growing debts of supposed firstworld countries, I think we might actually find (assuming that these stupid parody coins dont ruin it) that electronic currency may end up being the safest currency to keep hold of.

Not right now, obviously, it is far too volatile, but once it finds its feet and with enough big companies allowing its use, it may eventually stabilise and be a viable option for people to trade in and spend.